The Wealth and Poverty of Nations : Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor

Dates Covered: -
ISBN: 0393040178
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Our Take

David Landes is not the first author to attempt to explain the world's staggering disparity in wealth and long-term economic growth, but he is one of the best. Happily, he is a clever British academic, full of the qualities that so distinguish that breed: penetrating wit, unabashed confidence in the verity of his arguments, and a keen eye for narrative. Offering an important counterpoint to recent works of this nature that have tended to concentrate on biological factors (Plagues and Peoples; Guns, Germs, and Steel), Wealth and Poverty tackles the nagging question of the relative prosperity of peoples from an essentially economic point of view. This is not terribly surprising: Landes is a professor of economics at Harvard University. His arguments are refreshing neo-conservative thought. Readers of The Economist should be quite pleased when Landes asserts that the rule of law, respect for property rights, a culture respectful of innovation, and lack of a stifling centralized government all contributed in various forms to the ultimate economic supremacy of the United Kingdom, and over time, Europe and the United States. Variations on these themes led to different forms and different paces of economic progress in other countries.

Where Landes succeeds in this work is by tying together an extremely diverse body of past work, making firm conclusions, and with an excellent sense of narrative pace. Themes as broad as this cannot be analyzed purely statistically, nor do they lend themselves particularly well to long-winded summarizations and fence sitting. Wealth and Poverty breezes through continents and centuries with a self-assurance that is captivating and convincing. With a sensitive touch, Landes separates the wheat from the chaff of the classical, racially-tinged views on this topic, while taking a great deal of joy in blasting his detractors along the way. Just the footnotes make fascinating reading.

It's ambitious, provocative, and very English. Enough said?

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